President Donald Trump on Monday indicated that he wants to reach an agreement with Ukraine to gain access to the country’s rare earth elements as a condition for continuing U.S. support for its war against Russia.

Summary

Trump stated that continued U.S. support for Ukraine’s war effort would be contingent on securing access to the country’s rare earth materials.

He argued that the U.S. has contributed more aid than European allies and wants Ukraine to provide rare earth elements in return.

Trump claimed Ukraine is open to a deal, while Ukrainian President Zelenskyy stressed that negotiations about Ukraine must include its government.

Trump also said talks are ongoing to end the war, though no concrete agreements have been reached.

  • IHeartBadCode@fedia.io
    80·
    19 hours ago

    Smart thing would be to completely agree with Trump. Get $100T in military might, defeat Russia, get call from US about new rare earth metals, and then just be like “I’m sorry, who dis?”

    I mean what are they going to do, invade Ukraine? Didn’t you hear, they got $100T in military supplies to back them up.

    Trump always forgetting that some of this shit don’t ROI till way longer than he’ll be around. If Ukraine has any sense, they’ll send a giant gold plate W for Trump’s win, if he promises tanks and planes. They keep saying the wars ongoing for the next fifty years for all it matters. And if the US wants that metal upfront be like, “Yeah y’all come on in and mine it yourselves, don’t let us get in your way.” Then oops, sorry we bombed that, thought it was Russia.

    Like Trump thinking he’s walking with some massive upset and it’s just Ukraine court to play ball how they want. Shit yeah Ukraine “agrees” to whatever.

    • marcos@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      18 hours ago

      The smart thing to do is to get their help, put the investment into a state-owned rare-earth mining company, and sell those back to the US at market price later. Or maybe even agree on a discount for some fixed time.

      I don’t really understand where Trump is going with that.

    • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      81·
      17 hours ago

      Pretty sure all big US military equipment is backdoored and can be disabled remotely. At the very least it wont run for long or be repairable without the manufacturers help. Its DRM lock in all the way down to the hardware.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
        4·
        9 hours ago

        I doubt much is. It needs to be repairable in the field, even in conditions that wipe out communication. It can’t phone-home as a requirement, and it can’t be made in a way that you need to send it to an authorized technician to fix. I don’t see any way a robust DRM lock would fly.

        • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          2·
          8 hours ago

          The US military literally has non-repairability as a key point of current national security risk. They were actively involved in right to repair stuff because of it. I cant be fucked to find this rn but im sure its not too hard to find.

      • NudeNewt@lemm.eeEnglish
        14·
        17 hours ago

        Yes and no. Some is, yes, but a lot isn’t. After all how do you think ISIS was able to get those black hawks running in the first place?

        And if you’ve ever read through leaked training manuals you’d be shocked by how easy it is to get around whatever DRM some stuff has.

        • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 hour ago

          Well yeah, obviously not things like guns, light vehicles etc.

          All the tanks, fighting aircraft and advanced weapons systems though? Yeah I wouldn’t trust any of that against the US unless the entire software and hardware stack was source-available.Even then probably not worth it.